TUC launch practical policies to close Britain's £85bn wage gap

The share of the economy going to wages fell by more than five percentage points between 1980 and 2011 - equivalent to £85bn in today's money - while the sharp growth in inequality has meant that low and middle income earners have done even worse.

But a new TUC pamphlet published today (Monday) shows that new policies could close a quarter of this wage gap in the short to medium term, while in the longer term the creation of high-skill, high-wage jobs can close the rest.

The TUC Touchstone pamphlet How to Boost the Wage Share says that there is growing evidence that increased wage inequality helped cause the crash and has hindered recovery.